C... C... Communication
Posted 10-23-2009 at 02:32 AM by Aethelas
So in the start of this week I've had a little discussion with my healers. I set out with a couple of questions about how my gear choices for certain encounters really fit in with their heal tossing. Interestingly enough the general concensus was that apart from equiping a high stamina set for hardmode Northrend Beasts there's actually nothing else they notice. Quite frankly - they say that the more stamina/armor you get the better… Fill that up with some more 'we couldn't care less about avoidance' statements. Now obviously it gave me a view on how healing is currently handled. Well think what you want about the anwsers on how easy is it to heal Aethelas statements. For me, at least, it is an incentive to start working on threat and damage output.
The real gem however, was of a completely different nature. In fact it even prompted some dps ers to chime in.
What I learned though was that I've not been noticing a couple of things I do on the communicative side of raiding. A lot of that had to do with communication. Letting your fellow raiders know what you're about to do is pure gold. Here's a couple of examples:
But before you toss this aside: Are you communicating enough? Like - for real?
Aethelas
The real gem however, was of a completely different nature. In fact it even prompted some dps ers to chime in.
What I learned though was that I've not been noticing a couple of things I do on the communicative side of raiding. A lot of that had to do with communication. Letting your fellow raiders know what you're about to do is pure gold. Here's a couple of examples:
- Being vocal on vent/teamspeak about what you do helps people decide on things. "No no don't move towards me - I will intervene player X right now". It might sound a little repetetive if you do the same encounter a couple of times but it does help. Of course you must be your own worst critic about what you announce - what you announce has to be functional not a rundown of the buttons you mash/click.
- Be vocal about using your cooldowns. We have a healer chatchannel where healing assignments and such are being posted - I made a little macro announcing wether I'm using Last stand or Shieldwall in the healer channel too. And well - most of the time I'm announcing blowing my cooldowns on teamspeak too. For a healer it makes a world of difference if they know I have shieldwall up for the next 7 seconds and they see me topped off so he/she can give the raid a little more attention. However announcing things the right way will also make sure they've got a big heal or two ready for right after my cooldown goes down.
- Crowdcontrolled trashmobs. I know, I know… But they exist still and I doubt that Icecrown Citadel will be as free from trash as Trial of the Crusader is. We run with a set raidmark per tank and crowdcontroller. Naturally tanked mobs will be killed off first. The crux of communicating is announcing which mob you are picking up. It is good practice to let the mage know you're going to unsheep whatever he's got on focus. It's even better practice to immediately mark your new target up in combat so there can be no mistake about you picking up the mark. It also means they can give their full attention to nuking their brain out earlier and can potentially shave off some money from the repair bills… Example: We've had some confusing situations with banished mobs - the warlock in question saw a tank hitting the target in anticipation but when the banish ran out or was cancelled the tank was nowhere to be found. (obviously the silly lock didn't realize there were much more important targets to chase for our tanks and died for his unattentiveness! Ehm. Oops… )
But before you toss this aside: Are you communicating enough? Like - for real?
Aethelas
Total Comments 2
Comments
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I don't talk on vent, I know it's a hinderance, but people say they know me and what I'm going to do better then any other tank because I do extra work on the preparation. I communicate more through the game then most of my guild does on ventrilo, and they will admit it:
- I co-ordinate with the other tank. I take some extra time in pugs, and watch what they do on trash to see their style. I test their threat (and my own) and see what happens when I do stuff like taunt a mobb or move it to another location. Are they passive? Are they pushy? I try to alter my playstyle effectively. (I don't like pushy tanks, but hey, I think a successful run is paramount to petty differences. If they want to tank everything, fine. Their repair bill.) I state what my limitations are and when I'm a good or poor suited tank for a job by comparison (e.g. a warrior tank is the last one you'd want on whelp duty, but if their stats are good enough, the first ones you'd want on ony herself (for fear breaking.) Sometimes I have to correct a raid leader that isn't paying attention when I say (multiple times) we have the tank assignments sorted before we get to the boss and they're just doing it on the fly.
- I make macros for the fight in question well in advance (i.e. Gluth/Thorim/Gormok tank swaps.) As well as ones that state my current target. I have ones left over from PvP that have found their way into pve, such as shattering throw.
- I finally fenagled macros and mods that will /rw on successful cast of a cooldown (rather then my usual habit of slamming a button 5-6 times hoping it fires, or hitting it before realizing it's on cooldown, thus filling the screen with spam that sometimes isn't true.)
- DoTimers states cooldowns with one click, healbot lets people know who I'm scraping up (when I heal.)
All in all, I find that people talk alot in ventrilo, but take so long to say what needs to be said that often it's too late. In fact, one of the worst offenses is the word "me." Some are unable to talk about their character in third person which doesn't help at all. Old example, but Frost Tombs from K'T were notorious for this. When I wasn't tanking, I had a macro (naturally) but the people that often lived were the ones that said "tomb -character" (though it was more for the other healers benefits that weren't modded to the hilt like me to see their bar turn purple on healbot).
I guess the footnote I'm trying to add to the above is that just because someone is talking often, doesn't mean they're communicating well.Posted 10-23-2009 at 11:07 AM by Conreeaght 
- > I guess the footnote I'm trying to add to the above is that just because someone is talking often, doesn't mean they're communicating well. <
This. Looking back up it didn't come out of my text that well. Thanks for adding to it! It is quite important and very true.Posted 10-26-2009 at 01:48 AM by Aethelas
